In general, fluids are transported through flow paths formed by tubes or pipes. In daily life, tubes and pipes are widely used to transport fluid through in various fields such as water supply and drainage pipes, gas pipes, air conditioner coolant circulation pipes, waste conveyance pipes. In addition, such tubes or pipes are used to transport radioactive liquids from a storage tank to a reservoir for transportation.
When such tubes or pipes are conventionally used, they may often be separated to block flow of fluids. On the other hand, there are cases that the separated tubes or pipes must be connected to each other to flow the fluids.
For example, since the water supply and drainage pipes or gas pipes are buried under the ground, in order to work at a certain position, fluid in the tubes or pipes must be temporarily blocked. When transportation of the fluid through the water supply and drainage pipes or gas pipes must be temporarily blocked, one side of the pipe may be welded. However, it takes much time and manpower to block the pipe, especially, the welding requires very complicate processes.
When an indoor unit and an outdoor unit of an air conditioner must be separated due to moving, etc., an air conditioner coolant circulation pipe must be separated from the indoor unit and the outdoor unit. In this case, in order to prevent leakage of the coolant, the pipe connecting the indoor unit to the outdoor unit is removed, and connection parts of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit are blocked. Here, the pipe removed cannot be reused at different places due to the length or the bent shape thereof, and cannot be easily connected to a new pipe.
In addition, in the case of the pipe for transporting toxic fluids such as radioactive liquids, a block member is installed at a certain position on the pipe connecting between the storage tank and the reservoir for transportation. While the block member can block the toxic fluids such as radioactive liquids, the toxic fluids may remain on an exposed part of the block member after separation of the pipe to be leaked to the exterior.
Therefore, there is a need to conveniently and safely block and separate or connect the pipes or tubes.